County approves permit for handgun range

Officials expect safety baffles for rifle range

Apr. 11, 2013

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The Minnehaha County Commission approved an area gun club’s handgun range addition this week with the understanding that safety baffles will be installed on its existing rifle range to keep bullets from going astray.

The Big Sioux Rifle and Pistol Club has been under scrutiny in recent months as neighbors say stray bullets are coming onto their property. The Minnehaha County Commission has tried to knit together an agreement that addresses the fundamental issue of safety while also honoring the idea that county officials should not arbitrarily change conditional use permits.

The commission, by a 4-1 margin, with Commissioner Dick Kelly casting the lone ‘no’ vote, agreed to allow the gun club near Brandon to operate a new handgun range with five shooting bays, a move that will have no effect on the 1981 conditional use permit that governs the club’s three existing rifle ranges.

However, in a complicated rationale, Commissioner John Pekas’ motion eliminated three proposed conditions to the handgun range conditional use permit that would have required the club to install safety baffles on the 100-yard rifle range. The motion also noted club officials have agreed to install those baffles, if given reasonable time to do so, and the commission will hold them to the promise.

So, without trying to test its authority to make its approval of a new handgun range contingent upon new safety measures being installed on the rifle range, the commission said the 100-yard range must remain closed until the baffles are in place.

Pekas’ motion also points out a new state law might come to bear on the gun club. According to the law, if a shooting range is in compliance with regulations in force when the range went into operation, no change in local laws affecting the normal functioning of the range can result in the range being declared a nuisance. However, if the use or design of the range results in a threat to human life or homes, the shooting range can be declared a nuisance.

The issue rises from neighbors’ complaints to the commission last October that the gun club’s conditional use permit for the new handgun range should include more safety measures and require an annual inspection of the facility, as a result of incidents where neighbors were endangered by bullets flying beyond the range.

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Kellee Valnes of rural Brandon told commissioners her home at 48326 260th St. was struck by two bullets that escaped the confines of the range in June 2011.

Jon Haverly, a lawyer representing the gun club, tentatively believes a workable agreement can be reached. He said he will know for sure when he presents the commission’s decision to the gun club members.

Nonetheless, even as Pekas made the motion, the commissioner acknowledged his major hope was to create a clear legal record of the issues controlling the debate over the conditional user permit for the gun club’s new handgun range and the safety of club neighbors.

“The reality is they are going to court,” Pekas said. “I want to make it easy for all the parties.”

Commission Chairman Gerald Beninga was more hopeful.

“I am convinced you are not that far apart.

“I don’t think it has to go to court,” he told gun club proponents and concerned club neighbors. He said the commission’s action Tuesday gives the club and its neighbors a framework for arriving at a compromise.

Valnes, who initially complained to commissioners about bullets leaving the confines of the gun range, agreed a compromise might be achievable.

“Absolutely. That’s what we’ve been trying for since the beginning,” she said.

Valnes said she and other gun range neighbors concerned about safety sought to get those concerns addressed through the conditional use process only when they thought they could not come to an agreement with the club and had no other recourse.

Valnes said she complained about the club’s plans to expand with a new handgun range only after the shootings affected her family.

“I am offended we are being made the bad guy,” she said.

Valnes said the permit for the new handgun range and a requirement to install baffles on the 100-yard rifle range to prevent bullets from flying beyond its confines should have been separate issues.

The matter came to the commission as an appeal of a county planning commission decision in March. The planning commission approved the new handgun range with a conditional use permit containing 26 conditions dealing with safety measures on both the new range and the existing rifle ranges, and with the operation of the gun club.

Haverly told the commission that was unacceptable, and the gun club was prepared to go to court to ensure the county did not saddle the club with new conditions not contained in the 1981 permit for the operation of the existing rifle ranges.